New!'s circulation was up 35.6% year on year and 50.1% on the previous six months to 600,741 in the second half of last year, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations published today.

It took second place in the women's weekly market, as classified by ABC, and top place among the celebrity titles, leapfrogging sister title OK!, which was 15.7% up year on year but 1.9% down on the previous six months to 588,546.

Northern & Shell sister title Star was up 83.4% year on year and 54.8% on the previous six months to 492,067. Rivals said the two magazines had benefited from being regularly multipacked with OK!.

Star's circulation increase was not enough to eclipse Bauer Media's Closer, which was down 0.2% year on year but up 1.7% on the previous six months to 539,135.

Take a Break remained number one in the sector, with a 300,000 lead over second-placed New!, but was down 4.6% year on year and 2.2% on the previous six months to 900,016.

The sharpest year on year falls were at H Bauer's That's Life, which was down 10.7% year on year and 2.2% on the previous six months to 378,551; IPC Media's Pick Me Up, which was down 11.8% year on year but up 2.1% on the first half of 2009, to 329,943; and Hubert Media UK's Love It!, which was down 16.5% year on year and 8.1% on the previous six months to 283,379.

The biggest yearly gains outside the top five were at the National Magazine Company's Reveal, up 22.6% on the year and 4.8% on the previous six months to 330,911, and H Bauer's Bella, up 12.9% on the year and 3.7% on the previous six months to 253,001.

The Lady, Britain's second-oldest weekly magazine, saw a slight circulation increase on the previous six months and a 9.3% year-on-year rise to 28,782; it had a major relaunch in 2009.

Bauer Media's Heat was down 2.5% year on year but showed an increase on the previous six months, up 3.1%, to 458,858. It remained ahead of IPC's Chat, which was down 6.2% year on year but up 1.2% on the previous six months to 440,093, and Hello!, which was down 3.4% year on year but up 2.9% on the first half of last year to 409,043.

There was a similar pattern at IPC Media's Now, which was down 9.1% on the year but up 2.5% on the previous six months to 394,130.

Among other IPC women's titles, there were gains for Woman's Weekly, up 1.2% year on year and 2.8% on the previous six months to 344,553, but falls for Woman, down 9% year on year and 4.5% on the first half of 2009 to 316,216, and Woman's Own, down 8.3% year on year and 2.9% on the previous six months to 298,472.

DC Thomson's People's Friend was also down 6.2% year on year and 2.3% on the previous quarter to 306,591, while the UK edition of the National Enquirer was down 4.9% year on year and 4% on the first half of last year to 76,504.

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I should have gone to the pub. But instead I am trawling through the lower reaches of the Audit Bureau of Circulations magazines report for this Greenslade post. And hopefully you, instead of going to the pub, will read it